Changing Course Read online

  When a simple mission goes wrong, intergalactic space captain Jessa Arbelle nearly goes down with her ship.

  Her escape pod lands on Indemnion, a planet known for its raw, raucous societies, and Jessa’s top priority is keeping the few survivors with her safe while finding a way back home. That’s when she meets mysterious scrounger Kylin Enderson, a useful and attractive distraction she can hardly afford with so much at stake.

  Kylin resents Jessa’s silver spoon attitude, especially since Jessa has no idea what real life is like. Kylin has enough trouble keeping ahead of the creditors she owes for some of her more secretive undertakings, without having to help the beautiful captain who fell from the sky. But Kylin’s always been a sucker for a damsel in distress, and this time is no different.

  When Kylin’s secret comes out, it puts their growing attraction, as well as Jessa’s life, in danger. Will everything come crashing down, or can they change course before it’s too late?

  What Reviewers Say About Brey Willows’s Work

  Spinning Tales

  “This was a charming read! I liked the main character and the way the fairy tale realm works. I also found some of the problems and solution to be quite funny and fun to read. This is a good read for those who like fairy tales and retellings.”—Fierce Female Reads

  Fury’s Bridge

  “[Fury’s Bridge] is a paranormal read that’s not like any other. The premise is unique with some intriguing ideas. The main character is witty, strong and interesting.”—Melina Bickard, Librarian (Waterloo Library, London)

  Fury’s Death

  “This series has been getting steadily better as it’s progressed.”—The Good, the Bad, and the Unread

  Fury’s Choice

  “As with the first in the series, this book is part romance, part paranormal adventure, with a lot of humor and thought-provoking words on religion, belief, and self-determination thrown in…it is real page-turning stuff.”—Rainbow Reading Room

  “Fury’s Choice is a refreshing and creative endeavor. The story is populated with flawed and retired gods, vengeful Furies, delightful and thought-provoking characters who give our perspective of religion a little tweak. As tension builds, the story becomes an action-packed adventure.The love affair between Tis and Kera is enchanting. The bad guys are rotten to the core as one might expect. Willows uses well placed wit and humor to enhance the story and break the tension, which masterfully increases as the story progresses.”—Lambda Literary

  The Afterlife, Inc. Series

  “The whole is an intriguing concept, light and playfully done but well researched and constructed, with enough ancient and mythological detail to make it work without ever becoming a theology lesson. …Brey Willows has created an amusing cast from Fates and Furies to the gods of old. The gods are extremely well done, literally personifying the characteristics we associate with them, drawn with wit and humour, they are exactly who we would expect them to be. …Thoroughly enjoyed these; romances with a difference, fantasy set in the here and now with an interesting twist.”—Lesbian Reading Room

  Chosen

  “If I had a checklist with all the elements that I want to see in a book, Chosen could satisfy each item. The characters are so completely relatable, the action scenes are cinematic, the plot kept me on my toes, the dystopian theme is entirely relevant, and the romance is sweet and sexy.”—The Lesbian Review

  “This is an absolutely excellent example of speculative dystopian fiction. …The main characters are both excellent; sympathetic, interesting, intelligent, well rounded within the context of their situation. Their physical chemistry is great, the slow burn romance which follows behind is a wonderful read, and a great cliff-hanger to match the will they/won’t they of the Chosen. Whether you like fantasy or not you should give this book a go. The romance is spot-on, the world building excellent and the whole is just speculative fiction at its best.”—Curve

  Changing Course

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Changing Course

  © 2019 By Brey Willows. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-63555-336-9

  This Trade Paperback Original Is Published By

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, NY 12185

  First Edition: November 2019

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editor: Cindy Cresap

  Production Design: Susan Ramundo

  Cover Design By Jeanine Henning

  By the Author

  Chosen

  Spinning Tales

  Changing Course

  Afterlife, Inc. Series

  Fury’s Bridge

  Fury’s Choice

  Fury’s Death

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you always goes to Bold Strokes, a publisher I’m proud to write for. And thanks to Rad and Sandy, whose support and humor have meant the world to me over the years. To my editor, Cindy, who always makes me laugh and says things that keep me writing; thanks. And thank you to the readers, who keep picking up my quirky books and come back for more. And forever and always, thank you to my wife, without whom this journey would never have begun, and who makes every day an adventure I can’t wait to take with her.

  Dedication

  To Robyn, for changing the course of my entire life. I’ll follow you to the next world and beyond.

  Chapter One

  “This is Echo Eight Class Delta Centauri from the outer quadrant. We are abandoning ship and request an assist from any vessel in the area.” Captain Jessa Arabelle stopped to cough and pull her jacket over her face. Bruised purple smoke clogged the air and made her eyes water. “Repeat. We are abandoning ship. Twenty-two escape pods have been released and are heading toward the Andine Sector. Please send retrieval vessels.”

  A faint, crackled response was all she heard before the ship tilted, sending everything sliding into the opposite wall. She held onto the desk and scanned the remaining functional screens. The ship was empty except for the small crew waiting for her at the last escape pod. She squeezed her eyes shut and forced the despair away. She could deal with that later.

  The ship listed again before righting itself slightly, and she ran from the control room without looking back. Walls that once displayed an array of advertisements for whatever awaited the passengers on the planet they were headed to were now filled with a flashing red beacon telling people to head to the nearest escape pod. Like anyone needed to be told when the asteroid had hit mid-ship. Sirens and warnings had gone off almost instantly, and system failure had been terrifyingly fast.

  Jessa grabbed a railing as the ship listed forward this time, groaning and shuddering as it began to pull apart. She put her sleeve over her mouth and squinted against the surge in smoke. She didn’t need to see, though. This was her baby, and she knew every corridor and display panel on it.

  But when she turned left toward the escape pod, it was no longer her baby at all.

  Exposed wires buzzed and flared, jutting out from the ceiling and sides like tentacles waiting for prey. The window panel was cracked, splitting the rainbow of toxic gasses outside
the ship into beautiful, lethal shapes.

  She edged past the wires, hissing when one zapped at her arm and scorched the soft white fabric of her uniform, making her life-sign reading flash on her forearm in warning. The overhead lights flickered, and there was a deep, long groan, as though the ship was giving its last breath. And then the lights went out. The sirens stopped wailing. It was silent and dark, and Jessa winced. Ten steps forward. Then left. Then right. Nearly there.

  She felt along the wall, the flickering sparks from the wires giving her just enough light to make sure she wasn’t going to walk into anything. When she heard a shout, she sighed with relief. They hadn’t left her.

  “’Bout time, Captain. Thought you might take that whole going down with your ship thing to heart.” Teckoe Temple, chief officer and Jessa’s right hand, grinned. “I’m thinking we should probably get going if we’re going to do something crazy. Like, live.”

  Jessa clapped him on the back. She’d never hug him, that wasn’t her style. But they’d known each other long enough she figured he knew how relieved she was to find them there. “I agree. All pods are on course and out of the asteroid burst.” She turned to her chief engineer. “Asanka, we ready to go?”

  The gills in her neck flapped open and shut as she nodded. “And just in time.” She keyed in the code for the escape pod and the door slid open.

  Jessa waved the five members of her crew into the pod ahead of her, and she was the last to belt in. As the door slid shut, she closed her eyes against the dark destruction of the ship she’d loved and captained for so long. She clutched the armrests on the chair as the pod jerked free, and her stomach lurched as it drifted into space before the thrusters engaged. She leaned forward as they moved toward the front of the ship, which was now almost vertical.

  “Damn.” Teckoe whistled softly. “I can’t believe we managed to get everyone off.”

  Jessa didn’t reply, but she agreed. The hole in the secondary cabin section looked like a giant had punched right through the metal and then pulled it apart like a tin can. Smoke floated away from the ship and soon turned into sickly green clouds of loss thanks to the gases in this part of the galaxy.

  “Setting course for the Andine—”

  Something crashed into the pod, slamming them all forward in their seats. The pod spun, head over tail, sirens screaming but her crew silent. Jessa fought the need to vomit her lunch and closed her eyes against the view of the pink-purple nebula flashing past.

  “Asanka, what’s going on?” she finally got out as the pod righted itself.

  “Looks like a small asteroid hit. Probably a piece from the larger one that hit the ship.” She punched buttons, her gills opening and closing rapidly. “We’re not going to make it to Andine, Cap. We need to land.”

  “Land? There’s nothing in this quadrant. Except—”

  “Indemnion.” Chief Analyst Benika Ployt was even paler than usual. “But if we land there, we’re as good as dead anyway.”

  Jessa tried to remember all the things she’d heard about the remote outpost planet. It was too far off shipping routes to be important, and its reputation as a place of lawlessness and violence made it unattractive to tourist ships like Jessa’s. The pinging of the alarm made her decision. “Do it.” As Asanka set the new coordinates, Jessa sent out a distress signal, but it was unlikely it would make it to anyone who would help. Interference from the ship and the nebula surrounding it meant it wouldn’t get very far at all.

  The engine sputtered to life and the nebula slid past. Any bit of the debris passing the window could smash them to pieces, and Jessa felt the breath tremble in her chest. She wanted to scream, cry, rail at the injustice of being hit by an asteroid that had been hidden inside the nebula cloud and blocked from view by the nearby sun, meaning she hadn’t seen it until it had already torn through them. But she held it together. She was captain, and she’d damn well act the part. Calm to the end, if it came to that.

  “I should have gone to Pythagoran and studied math like my parents told me to.” Peshta Rhoda, the ship’s nutritional determiner, gave Jessa a wan smile.

  “At least then you wouldn’t have poisoned people with your cooking. It’s amazing we’re alive to escape the ship, after eating the Ordwellian bog sludge you’ve been feeding us.” Steve, their head physic, turned one eye toward Peshta and kept the other on space passing outside. He was smiling, but the blue lines that appeared in his face only when he was stressed were clear even in the dim cabin light.

  “Entering atmosphere. I don’t think we’re in for an easy landing.” Asanka punched buttons with one hand while gripping the armrest of her seat with the other.

  “Brace.” Jessa bent forward, her hands behind her neck, and was glad the others did too. The pod grew uncomfortably hot and incredibly loud, the sound of them breaking the sound barrier as they entered the planet’s gravity field deafening. Sweat dripped down her face and back, and Teckoe’s murmured prayers to his god helped keep the total panic at bay.

  The ding of the sensor to say they’d entered the atmosphere nearly made her relax, until the message, “Landing gear disabled. Please brace for impact,” sounded in the pod.

  Jessa’s heartbeat pulsed hard and fast in her throat, in her ears, in her hands. When the pod hit the ground with a sickening crunch, foam burst from the overhead compartments, filling the pod with a thick substance that cushioned them from the metal bending and denting around them as the pod flipped end over end. When it stopped rolling, when the groaning of the metal stilled and all she could hear around her was her shipmates moving in the foam, she gave in to the sickening fear. The world faded away as she closed her eyes, blessedly unconscious.

  Chapter Two

  “Damn, damn, damn.” Kylin Enderson dodged a fruit seller, tripped over a children’s flyer, and went sprawling into an antiquities shop, where she narrowly missed knocking over a vase she couldn’t afford to pay for in three lifetimes.

  Shouts from outside told her to keep moving. The shopkeeper shook his head, looking disgruntled as usual, and pointed toward the back. She blew him a kiss and quickly navigated the piles of cloth, books, and things she couldn’t name to get to the back door. The Stables in Quasi District were a maze of shops selling everything that could be gotten on Indemnion, and Kylin knew them like the back of her hand. A quick left past her favorite mechanic, a hard right next to the best bread maker in the Stables, and then she’d be home free—

  A hard hit to her chest slammed the air from her lungs and she landed hard on her back. She looked up at one of the ugliest linari collectors on the planet. “Ow. That was totally unnecessary.” Slowly, she got to her hands and knees and felt for the knife tucked into her boot. Of all days to leave the energy taser at home. A hard kick to her side sent her sprawling onto her back. “Come on, guys. I was just having a bit of fun. You know I’m good for my debts.”

  “Orlin wants to see you.”

  “And I imagine he wants to see me in one piece. So lay off with the heavy flirtation stuff, would you?” Kylin got up, dusted off her pants, and straightened her shirt.

  Another ugly mug joined the first and Kylin sighed. For the most part, Orlin believed in handling Stables matters in the Stables, and if she’d been able to make it home she’d have bought herself some time before having to face him again. As the starfish faced linari collectors walked ahead and behind her, she mentally ran through her options and bargaining power. She had precious little of either and was no farther along when she entered Orlin’s marketplace warehouse.

  He sat with his long, spider-like legs propped on the desk and a bubbling glass pipe between his skeletal fingers. “Kylin Enderson. My favorite fighter and biggest pain in my thorax. I’m hurt that you didn’t want to spend time with me.”

  Kylin flopped into the seat in front of his desk. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to…well, yeah, actually, that was why. We both know spending time with you isn’t good for my health.”

  He laughed, a grat
ing sound that echoed around the warehouse. “That’s very true, but it’s been good for you in other ways. You’ve made some money and managed to get your precious papa the flagweed he needs, haven’t you? I’ve been good to you, haven’t I?”

  “You’ve put me in the ring to win fights for you, and then you paid me half in money and half in flagweed, instead of letting me just buy the flagweed for way less money somewhere else.” She tried to keep the venom from her voice. Orlin tolerated a lot, but outright disrespect wasn’t on that list.

  “You were already fighting, and we both know you enjoy it. I put you in my ring because you needed money and somewhere to dump all that beautiful rage that builds up inside you.” He took a long puff on the pipe and blew out a cloud of sickly yellow smoke. “And you still need those fights for both of those reasons.” He took his legs from the desk and sat forward, his red eyes hard. “But we both know you took a dive last night. There’s no way that Skiva took you out.” He tapped out the yellow crystals from the pipe and added fresh ones. “And that makes me ask where your loyalty is these days, Kylin. And you know how I feel about loyalty.”

  Kylin knew exactly how he felt about it. Every time a fresh body floated down the river, there was no question who sent it there. Quasi could be tough, and the Stables especially so, but Orlin was the only truly big player in it. “I didn’t dive. If I had, it would have been way more dramatic and interesting. It’s your fault I hit the mat.” He narrowed his eyes and she hurried on. “I told you I wasn’t ready to get back in the ring yet after that match with the Belfura. She did a number on me, and she messed up my collarbone. The Skiva last night got lucky and got in a hit in the same place.”